Best ODI batsman?

So who is the best ODI batsman of all time?

I get the feeling that the general consensus here is that one of SRT, Bevan and Sir Viv.

So here we go.. a simple poll....

PS: People who think someone else apart from these 3 (and Ashish Nehra ) is the best ODI batsman... Plz post the name as a reply and plz vote for which one you think is the better ODI batsman among the 3 poll choices.

Last edited by honestbharani; 28-05-2008 at 07:17 AM.

We miss you, Fardin. :(. RIP.

Originally Posted by vic_orthdox

In the end, I think it's so utterly, incomprehensibly boring. There is so much context behind each innings of cricket that dissecting statistics into these small samples is just worthless. No-one has ever been faced with the same situation in which they come out to bat as someone else. Ever.

Sachin Tendulkar without a doubt, the 3/4th best player of all time, what a gun.

Originally Posted by Top_Cat

1) Had double pneumonia as a kid, as did my twin sis. Doctors told my parents to pray that we lived through the night. Dad said **** off, I'm an atheist, you ****s better save my kids, etc. Then prayed anyway.

Bevan is certainly good but I would not put him in the league of SRT and Viv .... if the peaks are considered then there are other good batsmen as well like Ganguly, Jayasuriya, De Silva, Inzi, Anwar, Klusener, etc

Dean Jones should be in there. But my choice would have to be Sachin Tendulkar. Done some crazy things at the top of the order.

Sreesanth said, "Next ball he was beaten and I said, 'is this the King Charles Lara? Who is this impostor, moving around nervously? I should have kept my mouth shut for the next ball - mind you, it was a length ball - Lara just pulled it over the church beyond the boundary! He is a true legend."

Richards should get a few votes. Though if Richards had played the same number of ODI innings as Tendulkar, he was on track for 26 centuries. Quite a bit, but not 42. However, Richards did score his runs faster and he didn't bat at the top of the order and the ODI game was different then, so its not a direct comparison. Compared to his peers, Richards scored his runs much faster, so that has to count in his favor.

In any case, I think Tendulkar should win it but Viv should be on his tail.

Best ODI batsman that I haved watched is Viv Richards. I dont see anyone as good as him. To bat in an era where most people were scoring @ a SR of low 60s (in ODIs) and averaging in mid-high 30s, this man scored @ a SR of 90+ and an average of 47 is simply amazing. I dont think anyone will ever be as good as him in ODIs.

Never seen any point in this question TBH, as I've said before. I don't feel ODIs fit the "all-time" mantra. I don't see any point whatsoever in comparing ODIs of the 1970s and 1980s with those of the 1990s and 2000s, they were inestimably different.

Bevan was the best of the modern ODI for mine, and Richards the best of the older ones.

And Dean Jones did more to change the game from what it was in the 1970s and 1980s than anyone else, and hence probably deserves a mention before anyone. Even though he was obviously not quite as good as Bevan or Tendulkar.

Richards should get a few votes. Though if Richards had played the same number of ODI innings as Tendulkar, he was on track for 26 centuries. Quite a bit, but not 42. However, Richards did score his runs faster and he didn't bat at the top of the order and the ODI game was different then, so its not a direct comparison. Compared to his peers, Richards scored his runs much faster, so that has to count in his favor.

First of all Viv mostly batted in the middle order where he had less opportunities to score 100s.
Secondly, he came into bat after one of the most prolific ODI opening pair of all time.

Thirdly and most important, the ODI has changed so much. back in the 80s 200-220 was a cmmon score and 250+ used to be a winning total, whereas now days 300-320s are common score.